An American Port of Call

Born in 1941 in Rochester, New York, Adolphus Cunningham Hailstork III began his composition studies at Howard University and at the American Institute at Fontainebleau where he studied with Nadia Boulanger, arguably the most important composition pedagogue of the 20th century. He would go on to receive bachelor and master’s degrees from Manhattan School of Music, and his doctorate in composition from Michigan State University. He has composed a wide variety of works for orchestra, chorus, opera, chamber ensembles, band, voice, and piano, and his music has been performed and recorded by major American orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Detroit Symphony, among others. Dr. Hailstork resides in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and is Professor of Music and Eminent Scholar at Old Dominion University in Norfolk.

Several of Adolphus Hailstork’s works are centered on American history or events, including Rise for Freedom, an opera about the Underground Railroad, premiered in the fall of 2007, Set Me on A Rock, regarding Hurricane Katrina, for orchestra and chorus, and the requiem cantata A Knee on A Neck, composed in 2021 in response to the murder of George Floyd. An American Port of Call was composed in 1985 for the Virginia Symphony. Dr. Hailstork has provided the following description of the work:

“The concert overture, in sonata-allegro form captures the strident (and occasionally tender and even mysterious) energy of a busy American port city. The great port of Norfolk, Virginia, where I live, was the direct inspiration.”